History YMMV / Airwolf

* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Dr.]] Charles Henry [[EvilBrit Moffett]], from the premiere, is the inventor of the attack helicopter Airwolf and a [[EvilGenius genius inventor who is also a brutal sociopath]] who WouldHitAGirl. Turning on the US, Moffett massacres a room full of personnel and later [[PsychoForHire sells his services to Libya]], using the Airwolf for terrorist attacks where he even wipes out an entire US battleship. Discovering a dancing girl is a spy for the agency called The Firm, Moffett tortures her in the desert where she eventually dies of thirst and exposure. Even after his death, it is revealed, in season 2's "Moffett's Ghost", that Moffett planned for the possibility and programmed the Airwolf to go berserk and fly itself to destroy everything it could if he did not enter a specific code to stop it, referring to it as [[TakingYouWithMe his last jest upon an insane world]].

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* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Dr.]] Charles Henry [[EvilBrit Moffett]], from the series premiere, is the [[EvilGenius genius]] inventor of the attack helicopter Airwolf and a [[EvilGenius genius inventor who is but also a brutal sociopath]] who WouldHitAGirl.sociopath. Turning on the US, Moffett massacres a room full of personnel and later [[PsychoForHire sells his services to Libya]], using the Airwolf for terrorist attacks where he even wipes out an entire US battleship. Discovering a dancing girl is a spy for the agency called The Firm, Moffett tortures her in the desert where she eventually dies of thirst and exposure. Even after his death, it is revealed, in season 2's "Moffett's Ghost", that it is revealed Moffett planned for the possibility and [[DeadManSwitch programmed the Airwolf to go berserk berserk]] and fly itself to destroy everything it could if he did not enter a specific code to stop it, referring to it as [[TakingYouWithMe his last jest upon an insane world]].world.

* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Dr.]] Charles Henry [[EvilBrit Moffett]], from the premiere, is the inventor of the attack helicopter Airwolf and a [[EvilGenius genius inventor who is also a brutal sociopath]] who WouldHitAGirl. Turning on the US, Moffett massacres a room full of personnel and later [[PsychoForHire sells his services to Libya]], using the Airwolf for terrorist attacks where he even wipes out an entire US battleship. Discovering a dancing girl is a spy for the agency called The Firm, Moffett tortures her in the desert where she eventually dies of thirst and exposure. Even after his death, it is revealed, in season 2's "Moffett's Ghost", that Moffett planned for the possibility and programmed the Airwolf to go berserk and fly itself to destroy everything it could if he did not enter a specific code to stop it, referring to it as [[TakingYouWithMe his last jest upon an insane world]].

* ScienceMarchesOn: One episode revolved a Vietnamese boy who was possibly Saint John's son. At the end of the episode, Archangel comments to String that it's too bad there's no way of determining for sure if the boy really is his nephew. In the mid-1980s, an entirely reasonable statement to make. In the present? Take DNA swabs from String and the boy in the morning and you could know if they were related by lunchtime.

* TrappedByMountainLions: Happens quite literally to Dom, who is forced to hide inside Airwolf instead of taking off because he'd previously set up a camo-net on top of the helicopter and he has to wait until the mountain lion meanders away before he can get it off. At one point, he [[TemptingFate tempts fate]] by wondering what else can go wrong, and ''a second mountain lion'' shows up.

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* TrappedByMountainLions: Happens quite literally to Dom, who is forced to hide inside Airwolf instead of taking off because he'd previously set up a camo-net on top of the helicopter and he has to wait until the mountain lion meanders away before he can get it off. At one point, he [[TemptingFate tempts fate]] by wondering what else can go wrong, and ''a second mountain lion'' shows up.

* HilariousInHindsight: In one episode a character is badly wounded and, rather than wait for an actual air ambulance, the team load him onto Airwolf, using it as a makeshift air ambulance. After the show was cancelled the first time the helicopter was sold and refurbished as an actual air ambulance. Unfortunately it became distinctly ''un''-hilarious when, as mentioned above, the helicopter was involved in a fatal crash killing everyone on board.

* FridgeBrilliance: Just what is it about Airwolf that makes it so only Moffet and Hawke could fly it to its fullest abilities? When in turbo mode, Airwolf essentially becomes a fighter plane. The entire concept is, in terms of realistic military application, a GameBreaker; helicopters are able to handle situations in small spaces and areas that fighter jets can't because they have minimum cruising speeds. However, helicopters stand no chance against fighter jets in combat, and a single fighter can easily solve the problem of ground units being assailed by helicopters. Airwolf can, at will, ''switch'' between both roles with one press of a button. The problem here is that piloting a gunship and piloting a fighter jet are two entirely different tasks, and someone like Dominic who only knows how to fly helicopters can't fly Airwolf in turbo mode because he doesn't know how to fly fighter jets.** Dom is show to use the turbos at times when he has to rescue String. However, he is never shown to use them in combat, which would require much more skill.** Where this falls down, of course, is that rotary-wing pilots do all of their initial flight training on fixed-wing aircraft, such as the T-34. So while a rotary pilot could not be expected to randomly be able to fly an advanced fixed-wing such as a B-2 or F/A-18, flying normally, even in jet aircraft, is very reasonable. Supersonic flight is not really very different, especially when adding in the computer-assists all modern supersonic aircraft (and of course, The Lady) have.

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* FridgeBrilliance: FridgeBrilliance:** Just what is it about Airwolf that makes it so only Moffet and Hawke could fly it to its fullest abilities? When in turbo mode, Airwolf essentially becomes a fighter plane. The entire concept is, in terms of realistic military application, a GameBreaker; helicopters are able to handle situations in small spaces and areas that fighter jets can't because they have minimum cruising speeds. However, helicopters stand no chance against fighter jets in combat, and a single fighter can easily solve the problem of ground units being assailed by helicopters. Airwolf can, at will, ''switch'' between both roles with one press of a button. The problem here is that piloting a gunship and piloting a fighter jet are two entirely different tasks, and someone like Dominic who only knows how to fly helicopters can't fly Airwolf in turbo mode because he doesn't know how to fly fighter jets.** *** Dom is show to use the turbos at times when he has to rescue String. However, he is never shown to use them in combat, which would require much more skill.** *** Where this falls down, of course, is that rotary-wing pilots do all of their initial flight training on fixed-wing aircraft, such as the T-34. So while a rotary pilot could not be expected to randomly be able to fly an advanced fixed-wing such as a B-2 or F/A-18, flying normally, even in jet aircraft, is very reasonable. Supersonic flight is not really very different, especially when adding in the computer-assists all modern supersonic aircraft (and of course, The Lady) have.have.** As mentioned below, in "Echoes of the Past," the villains create some fake news reports to try and trick Hawke into thinking he's been in a coma for 8 months. The main story they create involves Princess Diana and Prince Charles getting divorced. Why that story in particular? Well, although they had the resources to create the elaborate charade to try and fool Hawke, they also clearly didn't want to spend too much time and money on the charade, as every dollar of it would be less from their final reward. Celebrity gossip involving royalty would be the perfect middle ground - big enough to explain why every station on Hawke's TV is playing it constantly, but also trivial enough that someone like Stringfellow wouldn't be too interested in it and therefore wouldn't examine it too closely.

** In "Echoes of the Past" the villains are attempting to make Hawke think he's been in a coma for eight and a half months, and as part of the ruse they create a series of fake newspapers and television reports. One of the big stories on their fake news is about Princess Diana and Prince Charles getting divorced... 11 years later the two DID get divorced, following Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Opening [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_cFjg10Fsw theme]] and often heard during power-up scenes and routinely during battles. ** Actually, that's the SECOND theme - the 'disco' theme, which I always hated. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rzX3cp65jk&feature=related This]] was ''the original theme'' (notice the difference in the first few seconds; it's deeper, more forceful and less 'disco'-inspired. The change-over in themes - prime example of [[ExecutiveMeddling the beginning of the end]].

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* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Opening [[http://www.The show's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_cFjg10Fsw theme]] and often heard during power-up scenes and routinely during battles. ** Actually, that's the SECOND com/watch?v=HBd6ighzqYA theme - the 'disco' theme, which I always hated. [[http://www.song]], though some have argued that this got worse along with everything else in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rzX3cp65jk&feature=related This]] was ''the original theme'' (notice the difference in the first few seconds; it's deeper, more forceful and less 'disco'-inspired. The change-over in themes - prime example of [[ExecutiveMeddling the beginning of the end]].com/watch?v=SpOMS3QZtiM season 4]].

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